Monthly Archives: March 2011

I am what is considered a “newbie” in publishing terms. I am working with my publisher, Alternating Reality Books (a subsidiary of Dead Tree Comics) on the final stages of getting my novel, Let It Bleed, published, and have decided to share my experiences during this upcoming year. I find the whole process exciting, exhilarating, overwhelming, and exhausting.

There are two vital elements which have caused consistent stress in my life these past few months; the passing of time and the learning of new technologies. I have lists all over the place to help me get my thoughts organized and get myself on the right track for publication, publicity, and reviews – I want to share here all the little bits and pieces that I have managed to figure that I must complete, and the timelines in which they should be completed. I want other people – friends, other newbies, people who find this site by accident – to know that getting published is a full time job. Writing the novel was the easy part; now that that is done, getting it out into the big world of readers and reviewers is my new passion.

In the past 6 weeks, I am proud that I have completed the book trailer, created my very first ad (to be placed in the Souvenir Book for the World Horror Convention in Austin, TX April 28-May 1, 2011), joined several author communities, sent out two stories for consideration to two separate online publications, (finally!) figured out my Intuit website, and completed the cover of Let It Bleed and the final book proof interior. OK – actually, that last part about the book cover and final proof was completely taken care of by Dan, my publisher. All I had to do was open the links and make comments, since he did all the real work. But it was still technology – and it was exhausting. It is just not easy teaching this old dog new tricks.

Oh, and business cards. Those came out pretty cool, were fun to create, and I really get a kick out of handing them out to people.

So while I was busy working at my real job all day, and then coming home at night and trying to figure out all of the various technologies, time was passing. Serious time. Here is one of the big problems for newbies – I barely have any idea what I am doing, and I am running out of time to do it. There is one almighty word that just sits there, causing tension headaches and anxiety; that word is REVIEWS. It loops through my brain like a zombie newsreel. Must get reviews. Must send out press releases. Must get my name out there.

Time and technology. There is still so much to do between now and the next thirty days. I am going to take this day by day, and keep updating this blog so that we can all suffer the fate of a newbie author together.